Category: Blog

By News Desk published on 28/5/2019 Singapore health officials reported 3,285 dengue fever cases for the whole of last year. However, the National Environmental Agency (NEA) in Singapore reports around 4,000 cases through May 27. The increase in cases has prompted the NEA to conducted multiple rounds of inspections for mosquito breeding in the cluster […]

By Rick Noack published on 3/5/2019 BERLIN — After World War I and World War II, officials decided to dump hundreds of thousands of metric tons of munitions into the oceans around Europe, which at the time appeared to be the most easily accessible disposal ground. Some of those weapons — including mines containing mustard […]

By Marley Ghizzone published on 10/4/2019 A rapid public health response was credited with keeping a “massive” anthrax outbreak at a national park in Namibia from spilling over to infect humans or livestock, according to a report published today in Emerging Infectious Diseases. “Human anthrax cases are known to be associated with outbreaks in animals,” […]

By Associated Press on 22 March 2019 BEIJING (AP) — A massive explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China with a long record of safety violations has killed at least 47 people and injured hundreds of others, 90 of them seriously. Thursday’s blast in an industrial park in the city of Yancheng, north of […]

Published on 13 February 2019 A robot will attempt to examine radioactive fuel at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant on Wednesday in a complex operation seen as key to clean-up efforts after the 2011 meltdown. The operation is intended to better assess the status of the melted fuel, including whether it is stable enough to be […]

by Global Biodefense published on January 21 2019 The National Toxicology Program, on behalf of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) program, recently conducted a systematic review to evaluate the evidence for long-term neurological effects in humans and animals following acute exposure to sarin. Sarin is a highly toxic organophosphorus […]

By Ben Farmer published on 14 November 2018 Fewer than one-in-10 countries have met global standards for securing killer germs, increasing risks of an accidental disease outbreak or bioterrorism, a campaign group has warned. Just 19 countries completing a United Nations safety check have built or shown strong biosecurity safeguards. No countries meet the highest […]

Written by Steven Pike on 08 Oct 2018 The unintentional release of toxic chemicals can pose a wide range of physical, health and environmental hazards. And when it comes to the storage, handling or transport of hazardous materials (HazMat), safety is paramount. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines HazMat as any substance that is […]

Written by Steven Pike on 01 Oct 2018 From transport accidents involving hazardous compounds, to the mishandling of household chemicals, or the deliberate release of hazardous materials, fire department crews across the country need to be equipped and trained to respond to a myriad of potential HazMat events. So just how prepared do firefighters really […]

By Maarten S. Nieuwenhuizen, Stephanie E. Meulenbelt published on 6/7/2018 This paper discusses non-State actors’ motivation and capacity to develop and use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) improvised weapons in attacks, as well as the possible consequences of such use. Six types of groups have been identified as potential CBRN weapons users that may […]